Death & Co, a renowned cocktail bar, has transformed into Gin & Luck, an umbrella company strategically expanding its global footprint. By diversifying into retail, e-learning, and ready-to-drink cocktails while maintaining its core brick-and-mortar bar business, Gin & Luck is leveraging brand equity and a unified hospitality vision to drive profitable growth beyond traditional loss leaders.
Key takeaways
Diversify revenue streams by extending your core brand into related, standalone businesses like retail products or e-learning platforms, ensuring each new venture is profitable on its own.
Maintain your core business as the primary economic engine, using its brand equity to fuel diversification without letting new ventures become loss leaders.
Develop an umbrella company structure to unify diverse entrepreneurial pursuits, allowing for strategic management and growth across multiple locations and new business models.
Leverage direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels like online marketplaces and branded products to expand reach and monetize intellectual property beyond physical locations.
Focus on synergistic growth, where new business units complement and support each other, creating a stronger overall brand and increasing customer lifetime value.
Death & Co is an internationally known cocktail bar. It first began in New York but has expanded to other cities like Los Angeles and Washington, DC. But the company has big ambitions to grow even more.
That's what led to the creation of Gin & Luck, the umbrella company of the bar that launched in 2018. According to David Kaplan, who started Death & Co in 2006 and is now CEO of Gin & Luck, the idea is "to create a unified hospitality landscape where we could have all of these entrepreneurial pursuits -- all of our Death & Co growth -- under one company."
That includes more Death & Co locations opening up over the next year, as well as a cocktail bar brand called Close Company. It also means retail opportunities like an online marketplace, a book business and an e-learning platform.
Kaplan joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how he's approaching transforming a popular bar into a global business.
While there are many different parts of the business, the bars are still core. "Our primary economic engines -- and the focus points of our business -- really are our brick and mortars," he said.
Still, the other areas are integral to Gin & Luck's growth. "Everything else that we do -- our marketplace, even our social, the books, the ready-to-drink cocktails, we're working on a new education platform -- all of those things, for the most part, we view as a true standalone business," he said. "So it can't just be a loss leader for us."
Frequently asked about this episode
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Diversify revenue streams by extending your core brand into related, standalone businesses like retail products or e-learning platforms, ensuring each new venture is profitable on its own.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Maintain your core business as the primary economic engine, using its brand equity to fuel diversification without letting new ventures become loss leaders.
What does this episode say about founder & leadership?
Develop an umbrella company structure to unify diverse entrepreneurial pursuits, allowing for strategic management and growth across multiple locations and new business models.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Leverage direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels like online marketplaces and branded products to expand reach and monetize intellectual property beyond physical locations.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Focus on synergistic growth, where new business units complement and support each other, creating a stronger overall brand and increasing customer lifetime value.
